nd have in his care all helpless ones this day!"

The lifted hand, the bared head, the earnest accents, with which these
words were spoken, gave to this simple utterance of good-will all the
solemnity of a benediction or prayer.

I noticed that, after replacing his tarpaulin, the lips of Garth
continued to move silently, then were compressed gravely for a time,
while his eye, large, clear, and expressive, was fixed on space.

"Do you still see an iceberg, Mr. Garth? Do you really apprehend danger
for us now?" I asked, after studying his countenance for a moment, "or,
are you again desirous to try the nerves of your female passengers? I
think I must apply to the captain this time for information."

"Yes, danger," he replied, in low, sad tones, ignoring my last remark,
or perhaps not hearing it at all--"danger, compared with which an
iceberg might be considered in the light of a heavenly marcy. There is a
chance of grazing one of them snow-bowlders, or of its drifting away
from a ship, when the ripples reach it, or, if the wust comes, a body
can scramble overboard, and manage to live on the top of one of them
peaks, or in one of their ice-caves, with a few blankets, and a little
bread and junk and water, fur a space, so as to get a chance of meetin'
a ship, or a schooner; but, when there is something wrong in a ship's
heart, there a'n't much hope for rescue, onless it comes from above."

He hesitated, smiling grimly, rolled his quid, crammed his hat down over
his eyes, and again addressed himself to his wheel, and, for a few
moments, I stood beside him silently.

"The ship is leaking, I suppose," I said, at last, "so that you
apprehend her loss, perhaps," and my heart sank coldly within me, as I
spoke; "but, if this be true, why does not the captain apprise us? No,
you are quizzing me again, and very cruelly this time, very
unwarrantably."

Yet I did not think exactly as I spoke, strive as I might to believe the
man in jest. Too much solemnity and sorrow both were discernible in his
worn and rugged features, hewn grandly as if from granite, to admit of a
hope like this. His words were earnest, and some great calamity was in
store, I could not doubt, or at least he apprehended such. For some time
he replied not, then, slowing pointing to the base of the stricken
mainmast, which still showed an elevation of some inches above the deck,
he revealed to me the truth without a word.

As my eyes followed his guiding finge